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Danes ban truck trailers on trains after fatal accident

Published Tue Jan 08 2019 13:48:59 GMT+0000 (UTC)

by Associated Press

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark has banned truck trailers on trains following a deadly accident last week in which a high-speed passenger train struck cargo that had fallen off a freight train coming from the opposite direction.

The Danish Transport, Construction and Housing Authority also said it is imposing stricter conditions for freight transport over the Storebaelt rail link, a system connecting islands in the center of Denmark, "under special weather conditions" and banning the crossing of freight trains during storms.

The Jan. 2 accident that saw eight people killed and 16 injured occurred on a bridge during strong winds.

The cause of the crash, involving a freight train transporting semi-trailers filled with beer crates, is still under investigation.

The agency said Tuesday's decision came after a test showed some semi-trailers were not securely locked on the flatcars of freight trains.

Divers work in the waters below the Great Belt Bridge in Nyborg, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2018, in the morning after a train accident. Several passengers were killed when a Danish train sustained damage while crossing a bridge that was closed to cars because of high wind Wednesday, and authorities investigated if falling cargo from a freight train caused Denmark's deadliest railway accident in 30 years. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)The train involved in the Wednesday morning accident is covered in Nyborg, Denmark, Thursday Jan. 3, 2019. Two more bodies have been found in the wreckage of a train crash on a Danish bridge, raising the death toll to eight in Denmark's deadliest train accident in 30 years, police said Thursday. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)The train involved in the Wednesday morning accident is covered in Nyborg, Denmark, Thursday Jan. 3, 2019. Two more bodies have been found in the wreckage of a train crash on a Danish bridge, raising the death toll to eight in Denmark's deadliest train accident in 30 years, police said Thursday. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)